- Ready to celebrate the holiday season in style? Discover our comprehensive guide on how to throw a virtual holiday party.
With the holidays right around the corner, we are all looking for new ways to spice up the workplace, virtually! This list of the best virtual party ideas and games has something for you and your remote employees, and will put every member of your team in the holiday spirit. There’s no reason to miss out on the traditional company party, and here’s how we can all enjoy the holidays together!
What’s a Virtual Holiday Party?
Virtual holiday parties are events over Zoom and other web conferencing platforms designed to celebrate the upcoming holiday with employees, coworkers, team members and friends.
Why have a Virtual Holiday Party?
We are all lovers of tradition, and with all that’s currently going on in the world, missing out on our favorite holiday traditions is too much to bear. Instead of missing out on your holiday party, here are a few ways to host your traditional event virtually, along with some suggestions for fun games to play with your team members, employees, or co-workers.
Below you’ll find an array of ideas, events and games curated to make your virtual holiday party both festive and fun. There’s no reason to miss out on your office party tradition when there are so many creative possibilities to engage in and virtual technologies to use.
How to Have a Virtual Holiday Party
- Time It Out Properly: Remember when scheduling your Virtual Holiday Party to consider the schedules of everyone joining. Depending on where everyone is the ideal time might be difficult to settle, but attempt to be creative.
- Use Your Available Tools and Technology: Platforms like Skype, Zoom, or other productive virtual conference platforms can be used to easily bring everyone on-screen together for your virtual holiday celebration. Everyone joining in can use this opportunity to show off their homes, offices, family and pets! You can take a moment to bring everyone into the holiday spirit with virtual tours including holiday decorations and lighting displays.
- Play Games or Host a Contest: Host an ugly sweater contest over Zoom or via email with pictures. Online karaoke is possible by gathering your remote employees together virtually to sing their hearts out. There are plenty of games and contests to choose from!
Virtual Holiday Party Ideas & Games
- Play Virtual Holiday Bingo
Have your party goers prepare Bingo cards in advance (or have them emailed and printed) to play this fun variant on the traditional game! Bingo is a great holiday game that encourages interaction and cheer.
- Virtual Holiday Scavenger Hunt
Ask your partiers to roam their homes and offices on an epic holiday adventure. Set your own goals, such as “Find a red ornament” or “Show a holiday movie.” This is a holiday activity that feels festive and exciting!
- Send goodie boxes to your team
Send a box of snacks, a gift card or even a recipe through a local delivery service. Have everyone join in over Zoom while they chat and enjoy their goodies. This is a great way to host a virtual holiday hang out that feels like a party.
- Dress up in holiday costumes
Have everyone dress up in their best holiday costumes and show them off! Get into the holiday spirit by complementing one another and getting creatively festive.
- Make a holiday playlist
Prepare a holiday playlist that everyone can add to and enjoy together! Compile it into a single file for everyone to access, send it over Slack or use Spotify and allow everyone to add their favorite songs.
- Play holiday inspired team building games
Erase any awkwardness at your virtual party by playing some fun games! Play your classic favorites by adding a holiday twist. Play fun holiday-themed icebreaker games such as guessing ornaments, answering holiday movie trivia, holiday charades or a virtual e-card exchange.
- Host a virtual card exchange
Send e-cards virtually! Holiday cards are a great addition to the spirit of giving, and everyone can entertain one another by showing off their personalized holiday cards. Put a twist on it by exchanging cards as a whole or doing it individually.
- Mystery Holiday Theatre 3000
Bring new life into old holiday classics with this fun game. First, pick a beloved holiday movie such as It’s a Wonderful Life or Elf. Encourage your employees or team members to comment on the film, either out loud or in chat. This game lets your team’s sense of humor shine, as everyone riffs on their favorite movies.
- Virtual wine/beer tasting
Share some virtual cheer with a wine and beer tasting! You can either send a lovely care package to your remote employees and team members or ask everyone to grab their favorites and drink together. All sorts of holiday shenanigans and laughs can happen together during this fun virtual event.
- Sing Company Holiday Carols
Have a celebration together and share in some holiday cheer by singing carols together. You can curate a list of classical favorites or ask everyone to join in with their personal favorites. Pair this event with sharing some holiday goodies or drinking wine and cider and this becomes the mixture for a perfect virtual holiday party.
- Holiday Happy Hour
Enjoy a drink together with a mixture of holiday cocktails. You can send a gift basket of cocktail preparations or forward some money to your remote employees and team members and ask them to prepare their favorite drinks. Then, let the fun begin!
- Virtual Holiday Decorating
Share the best part of the holidays together by decorating for the holidays. We all miss decking the halls with colleagues, and there’s no reason to miss it remotely. Using Instagram you can create an advent calendar where each team member’s decorative style can be showcased throughout November and December. Turn these options into wallpapers or create an online photo album where everyone can share their holiday decorating scenes together.
- Christmas Time in the City
Direct each of your team members to capture their best pictures and video to show off how their hometown celebrates the holiday. Let people submit their pictures and video to put in a slideshow, or post them on your company Instagram. Invite each of your employees to compare their holiday traditions and ask each other about the ones they don’t recognize.
- Celebrate a variety of holidays
Celebrate the diversity of your remote team, including their holidays and countries of origin. The holidays are vast; most of us celebrate in different ways. Invite your team members to share their unique celebrations and show the significance of their holidays. Celebrating different holidays allows your team and employees to understand one another better and acknowledges the wonderful differences of each individual, and their family.
- Tradition or not?
Experience the strangeness of holiday traditions together with this fun game. We all practice unique holiday customs. This game reveals our most endearing and interesting holiday traditions. A unique festive twist on Two Truths and a Lie, this variant challenges team members to guess whether or not a colleagues tradition is real or not.
- Holiday special
Challenge your team members to put aside the heated debate about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film, and instead invite them to turn other movies into holiday flicks by imagining creative changes. Teammates will describe their own deleted scenes that transform popular movies into holiday films. The most grandiose changes win.
- Name that tune holiday edition
Name your favorite holiday tunes in this twist on a classic party game. Have each of your players race to identify the melody within holiday songs. Ask your team to either hum the tunes or sing part of a song. The other players must listen and identify the carol.
- Cookie decorating contest
Mail the supplies to your teammates a week ahead of time, such as cheap gingerbread house kits or cookie mix and frosting packs. Ask each team member to get creative and design their best cookies, then have everyone vote for which ones they like the most.
- Online holiday trivia
Gather your virtual team for a few rounds of team trivia, holiday edition! Prepare your questions, split your group into teams and quiz everyone on their holiday knowledge. Ask each team to come up with their own holiday-themed team name, and base your questions around subjects like holiday film trivia or music.
- Seasonal buzzwords
Ask your virtual holiday party attendees to select some seasonal buzzwords, such as “elf,” “snow,” or “present.” Participants must drink (or, sans alcohol, do jumping jacks or some other activity) upon hearing each of the buzzwords. This is an especially fun game to mix into listening to carols or watching holiday movies together.
- Silent night charades
Have your team members join in on this seasonal spin of a classic game. All traditional charades rules still apply, only each scenario is holiday themed. Ideas can include holiday films, carols, seasonal traditions, or Christmas characters.
- Never have I ever (holiday edition)
Separate your team members from the Nice and Naughty lists by playing this holiday themed version of the classic game. Have every teammate hold up ten fingers which represent a rack of reindeer antlers. Then, each team member will take turns naming holiday activities. If any player has performed the action, that person lowers one finger. Whoever ends with the most remaining “antler horns” wins!
- Chubby elf
Play this fun variant on “Chubby Bunny” where participants stuff their mouths with holiday goodies such as Christmas cookies, fruit cake or gingerbread! With their mouths full, players will read through seasonal stories while participants guess the title.
- Secret Santa
The holidays aren’t complete without this classic, and there’s no reason for your virtual holiday party to miss out. Pick out names using a gift exchange generator, send the presents a few weeks early and have everyone open up their gifts on a Zoom call. You can also ask everyone to send virtual gifts such as membership subscriptions or gift cards.
- Guess the gift
Harness everyone’s innate desire to snoop on presents with this fun holiday game. Before your virtual holiday party, ask each of your team members to wrap up an object and take a picture of it. Have each player then take several pictures, unwrapping it a little each time. Your other guests will try and guess what the item is before the paper is gone completely.
- Virtual dance party
Host a stylish and festive event for everyone by scheduling a dance party! You can set this up in advance by curating a playlist on Spotify, where everyone can add their favorite holiday tunes to the mix. Then pick a date, set up your Zoom appointment, and let everyone cut loose!
- Decorate your space/desk
Ask each of your employees or team members to decorate their at-home workspace in a festive way. Via email, Instagram, Snapchat or other communication platform, let everyone show off their space and complement one another on their creatively festive arrangements. This is a great way to help everyone feel closer together in the holiday spirit, even from home.
- Watch a movie together
Using NetflixParty or other party streaming service, you can set up a holiday film viewing event that everyone can take part in. You can even ask everyone to join in with their families and suggest their favorite films, taking a poll for which holiday movie you decide to watch.
- Organize a white elephant gift exchange
Ask each team member or employee to find their best random, strange, or hilarious “unwanted” gift and send it to one of their colleagues from a randomized list. Have everyone open up their gifts via Zoom and watch the festive hilarity ensue!
- Recipe exchange
Have each of your team members swap their favorite recipes! You can ask everyone to put together a list, offer suggestions, and pick which holiday you swap recipes for (such as Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas). This is a fun way for everyone to experience new and different recipes and show off their takes on old classics.
- Costume contest
Host a festive and fun virtual costume conference over Zoom! Set the date far enough in advance and ask everyone to show off their creative sides. You can vote on best costume and pair this fun event with your Holiday Trivia or Secret Santa!
- Donate to a cause together
Ask everyone to get in on the spirit of giving together by picking a cause you all believe in and donating amounts. You can even increase the competitive spirit and see who can give most, matching donations with your organization or corporation.
- Give an experience instead of a gift
Change up the traditional gift-giving experience by giving your team members an interesting experience instead of a gift. This might take some creative imagination under the constraints of our pandemic lifestyle. Some suggestions are joint arts and crafts, theater season pass tickets, movie tickets, national park passes, museum passes or other adventurous outdoorsy events.
- Send eCards
Give the holiday spirit by sending out eCards to your team members that have festive themes. You can send these cards out yourself or create an event where each of your employees sends festive eCards to fellow colleagues.
- Virtual cocktail party
Similar to the virtual happy hour, you can host a virtual cocktail party by sending out ingredients in advance or asking everyone to creatively chip in together. Host the party over Zoom and watch the festive fun begin! This is a great idea when paired with holiday charades or watching a festive movie together.
- Virtual ugly sweater contest
Ask everyone to join in on this virtual twist of a hilarious classic, the ugly sweater contest! Pick a date in advance, create the Zoom meeting, and watch the festive fun unfold as each employee or team member gets to see their fellow colleagues in their ugliest sweaters.
- Virtual holiday karaoke
Host a virtual holiday karaoke party by curating a playlist, sending out cute invites, and letting the festive good times flow! Ramp up everyone’s excitement by giving away holiday-themed prizes for whoever sings the best song. Pair this holiday event with your virtual cocktail party for some true festive hilarity.
- Celebrate everyone’s accomplishments
We all need some extra care this year, and what better time than the holidays to show your team members and employees that you’re proud of all their accomplishments. Host a virtual event where you celebrate individual and company-wide accomplishments, give out prizes, and make everyone feel like they’re a part of the team.
- Send care packages
Get inventive and festive by putting together some fun holiday-themed care packages that you can send to your team. You can include ornaments, recipes, gifts, holiday movies and more, and then have everyone open up their care packages together over Zoom.
- Send A Gift Box
Send a festive gift box to your team members that everyone can open up together over Zoom, and include a fun theme or game that everyone can engage in. These fun gift boxes can be as creative as you want; you can send cookies, ornaments, or other fun festive items that your team members can open up together virtually and enjoy.
- Send Decorations or Props
Help everyone get into the holiday spirit by sending a fun array of decorations to your team members. These can be ornaments or festive decorations for your employees’ at-home office spaces. Celebrate together over Zoom by allowing everyone to show off the fun decorations they receive together.
At cityHUNT, we are as obsessed with the holidays as you are and know how to make a festive good time. We’ve put together a fantastic array of games that’s sure to make your next virtual holiday office party a blast.
